The government has decided to upgrade as many as 150,000 sub-centres into health and wellness centres across the country, Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare Faggan Singh Kulaste said recently at the 8th convocation ceremony of the International Institute of Health Management and Research (IIHMR), where he was invited as the chief guest.

The governments National Health Policy, 2017, stresses the promotion of health and wellness for all. With this objective in mind, the government has decided to upgrade 150,000 sub centres into health and wellness centres across the country, in a time bound manner, Kulaste said.

Highlighting the priorities set by the government to promote “health and wellness for all”, the minister said that India needs trained hospitals managers to improve its health delivery system.

Kulaste admitted that the healthcare delivery system in the country is facing many challenges, especially in rural and far-flung areas.

We need better management of resources, especially human resources. Equipment, infrastructure and procurement and delivery of essential medicines, vaccines and contraceptives, need to be strengthened and streamlined. For this we needlarge numbers of qualified hospitals and healthcare managers in the country. Im glad that institutions like IIHMR are contributing in this effort, Kulaste said.

During the convocation ceremony, 80 students were awarded Postgraduate Diploma in Hospital and Health Management. Four students got gold medals, one each for Health Management, Hospital Management, Health Information Technology and one for overall outstanding performance across all streams.

Congratulating the graduating students, Dr Sanjiv Kumar, Director, IIHMR Delhi, said, We have come a long way since 2008, when we started IIHMR, Delhi with the objective of improving the management of the healthcare institutions both in public and private sector. IIHMR Delhi is dedicated to improving the standards of healthcare through better management of healthcare.”

Dr Ashok K Agarwal, Dean Academics, IIHMR proposed the vote of thanks and expressed special thanks to the minister for gracing the occasion.